In This Together

As Budgets Are Pruned, Essentials Must Be Protected, Not Special Interests

December 05, 2008

Take a number.

If you want to lean on state or local officials, to try to convince them to do their budgetary magic without pulling your pet cause out of the hat, the line forms to the right.

It's a long one, as every cause and constituency tries to make the case for why the thing they care about should be spared as cities, counties and the state try to reconcile income and outgo.

It's a challenge. The economy is taking a bite out of all kinds of revenue: sales, personal property, meals, lodging, business and gas taxes. And local and state governments have gotten used to a lifestyle that was made possible by better times, when many increased spending far more than inflation and population growth would explain.

The challenge of bringing spending and income in line will, count on it, turn into a tug of war.

Public schools and their advocates - and who's better at rallying advocates, except maybe police and fire services? - will argue that education deserves special treatment, if not total exemption.

That's not possible, not when education consumes one-third of the state budget, and half or more of many local budgets.

Nor is it necessary. Yes, education must be protected. But education and educational bureaucracies are not one and the same. City councils, boards of supervisors and school boards must be careful to protect actual education - the teaching and learning of things young people need to become productive, responsible adults. But even at the school level, initiatives were launched and programs grew while tax times were good, and not all have proven their value with results. And where central offices have blossomed, they can't claim the special status the classroom end of education deserves.

In short, the essentials must be protected, but not every dollar a school system spends is on essentials.

After inflation, the combined budgets of the state's public colleges went up three times as fast as enrollment over the last decade. State aid to local schools increased four times as fast as enrollment, and that has been the single biggest driver in the doubling of state spending in the last decade.

The importance of education is obvious. Its value is not debatable. But the sheer size of education spending and the rate at which it has grown mean that it has to be on the table as budgetary scalpels are poised to make cuts.

There are other core government functions that can't be compromised. Potholes have to be plugged, drainage ditches cleaned out, crimes investigated, nursing homes inspected, prisoners locked up. There are services in which cuts will cause so much pain, for individuals and society, that they deserve special handling- for example, treatment of mental illness and health care for poor children.

But beyond the essentials, all areas of government have to share in finding the billions of dollars that must be trimmed.

And government employees will have to join in absorbing the burden. You can count on calls for special treatment of teachers and government workers - for example, exempting them from paying any of the increased cost of health insurance. That doesn't make sense. The average taxpayer is paying more for insurance, and shouldn't have to pay more in taxes to spare his neighbor that reality just because her paycheck comes from the county.

You can count on push-back when it comes to pay raises, too. Yes, not giving raises to government workers will add to the pinch. But lots of taxpayers are losing jobs and retirement benefits - things that are more secure for government workers. If the only way to protect government employees' raises is to cut services taxpayers rely on, the choice is clear.

We're all in this economic mess together, even if we aren't sure what "this" is - how bad, how long-lasting, how disastrous the effects. That includes taxpayers and government workers, elected officials and the public.

First, cuts must be aimed at discretionary spending. Only then move on to the services that are central to government's obligations. Even they can stand some pruning of overgrowth that has crept in - and it may be necessary to get close to the bone.

If you want to direct the pruners, this is the time to do it. They're ready to listen, and many are holding public meetings for that purpose. But if you want to protect your favorite cause, take a number.